Secret super power for a song.
Written: Jul 29 '09 (Updated Jul 29 '09)
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Pros: Powerful, cheap. Tons of RAM
Cons: Crap video cards, strange hard drive partitioning, Vista Home Premium SP1 not 2.
The Bottom Line: Cheap and powerful, just like how I like 'em.
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| kfj001's Full Review: ASUS CM5570-AP006 PC Desktop |
Secret super power for a song.
Well, it's not really my first computer... I needed to buy a new computer after my last one finally fried and died when one of its fan's failed. I usually build my own PC's, but this time? I wanted a normal computer. One I didn't have to fix myself, that had matching parts and just plain worked.
Oh, but it had to be cheap, and it had to be a PC.
What I needed
I'm a software developer, and a PC gamer, and a skinflint. I wanted a computer with at least 4GB of RAM for my work and gaming, as well as a good processor for, well, my work and gaming.
Programming requires more than just the ability to run Microsoft Office, I'm afraid. Same with video games, they like RAM, they like speedy CPU's, and they love smoking fast video cards.
Well, 2 out of 3 wasn't so bad, especially for what I paid.
I didn't really care about the size of hard drive, these days they're all at least 100GB in size. Same with the optical drive, they're all DVD burners of SOME kind.
What I got
This model Essentio is a very nice find. It's got 6GB of RAM, an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU (4 core 64-bit consumer grade processor) and a 750gb hard drive. This is a very handsome setup considering the computer was under $700.
The quad core CPU is a spectacular bonus. This one features a 2.33GHZ Core 2 Quad, now the clock speed isn't the fastest in the world, but the fact that its got 4 cores on board, is a 64-bit CPU and isn't a slouch all around more than makes up for the numbers.
Because the computer comes with more RAM than a 32-bit operating system can use, the Essentio comes with Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition. This isn't a spectacular bonus on a new PC (it's actually becoming more common to put the 64-bit version of Windows on, instead of the 32-bit version.) but for people who want to run some old software that probably barely worked in Windows Vista before, will find they probably don't work in Windows Vista 64.
However, everything out-of-the-box works great on the Essentio.
Even though the Essentio is a desktop PC, it comes with a Wifi adaptor add-on card. This card features external antenna sockets, and even comes with two magnetic Wifi antennas that screw into the adaptor.
The video card, on the other hand... Is not so nice. The Essentio has two separate video cards. One onboard Intel GMA video card with HDMI out, and one nVidia GeForce G100 PCI-X addon card with VGA & DVI.
Both cards are crap for gaming. The integrated Intel GMA card is disabled forcefully by having a PCI-X card installed (in this case - the nVidia GeForce card.) making the nVidia GeForce G100 the "defacto" video output. Don't let this card's lofty name fool you - it's a crappy discount addon card and sucks for video gaming.
Fortunately, you can pop in your own PCI-X video card.
There's a built in media card reader in a "hidden" compartment on the front of the tower that also features front mounted speaker jack, microphone jack, and the standard slew of memory card reader slots.
ASUS? Is that really a quality brand?
ASUS isn't a non-name brand manufacturer. They've made computer motherboards for over a decade. In fact, they've made the best computer motherboards anyone could buy for a very long time. Their foray into actual, whole computers is a little more recent, though.
Obviously it's got an ASUS motherboard...
As far as customer support is concerned - forget it. I'm not calling them. Unless a part fails mechanically, tech support is just a waste of my time. Sorry. I can't tell you what ASUS customer service would be like.
Like I said - I used to build them myself. I just didn't want the hassle this time.
Pro's
This is a really powerful computer. And it's really cheap. It's got a great chip, a ton of RAM, and if you're not looking for heavy gaming, a not horrendous (but still kinda cheap) video card.
The included wifi addon card and antennae are a great touch. I hate wiring.
An enormous hard drive is also a great plus. Coming in under $700 (I found this supposedly "on sale" at $599) makes this computer a great buy.
Unlike most retail computers, this one came with a surprising lack of crap software, and most of the stuff I didn't want to see was in the uninstall programs control panel, so I could just remove them.
Con's
The video cards (all two of them) are crap.
The hard drive was partitioned strangely making it less easy to take advantage of that "enormous space", and I can't think of a good reason for it.
The computer came with Windows Vista Home Premium SP1. SP2 is out, and has been for several months. I was a bit put off by the fact that I had to download the service pack.
It doesn't come with a monitor or speakers. If you're in need of either - you'll have to buy them separately.
Summary
I had all the hardware I was going to need to use this computer from my old computer. The fact it came with a keyboard and optical mouse of its own is pretty standard issue, even for a cheap PC.
At least the included keyboard and mouse are "theme matched" with the case.
I had my own video card (which was better,) so I popped my own card in instead.
It's got more than enough ram, hard disk space and CPU power to make your applications work great, and there's even enough horsepower for some gaming and power use, including paravirtualization and emulation, software development, and perhaps impromptu hosted service tasks.
Not too shabby for its price.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 599
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
kfj001
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Member: Kyle
Location: Buffalo, NY, USA
Reviews written: 138
Trusted by: 30 members
About Me:
"Testing", "Destroying", it's all just one big, gray line to me.
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